Wardrobe



E. B. GREEN, JR

. WARDROBE Dec. 1, 1931. Re. 18,267

Original Fild May a, 1929 I y g 2 Z 4 I 4 [Z 4 2 I O Z I Z 4 /4 l W I 75I I I I 32 K}. 75- gg I I l I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I l I I I I I 1l I I I I I l l I I I I I I I I I I I I l I I I I I I I I I I I l l I Ias I INVENTOR Edward BGreenjr.

22 BY g Q M/KJL ATTORNEY Reissued Dec. 1, 1931 1 UNITED STATE PATENTOFFICE EDWARD B. GREEN, JR, or BUFFALO, NEW YonxyAssrenon 'ro MODERNwARnRoBE,

INC., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK v wARnRo E Original No. 1,734,768, datedNovember 5, 1929,- Serial Nb. 360,638, filed May 6, 1929. Applicationfor reissue filed August 12, 1930. Serial 'No. 474,811. I

The present invention relates to wardrobes or clothes closets, and is.aimed to provide a simple construction whereby a highly efiicient useis made of available space and the doors of the wardrobe will be pushedpartly back into the wardrobe when they are open.

The essential feature of my invention is that I supply a pivot removedback a substantial distance from the plane of the door in such a manneras tosupport the weight of the door, and connect the door to this pivotat least in part by a bar on which ordinary clothes hangers can be hung.I have found that the cheapest way to arrange this pivot is to supply amember inside the wardrobe running from the top to the bottom thereof towhich the door is connected, but if preferred I may use two separatepivot members one at the top and one at the bottom.-

My invention can readily be understood by reference to the illustrativeexamples shown in the accompanying drawings, in which 'Fi g. 1 is asectional view through a wardrobe embodying my invention; Fig. 2 is afront view of a portion of such wardrobe; Fig. 3 is a sectional planview corresponding to Fig. 1 showing a slight modification, and Fig. 4is a sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 3 showing details of the, hingeconstruction used in Fig. 3.

The wardrobe (which may either be built in the wall or made as acomplete unit) is here shown as comprising aback member 10, two sidemembers 12 and two members 14 which extend a short distance across thefacer The doors 16 meet in the middle and are bevelled near their outeredges to match up with the members 14. Thepivots about which the doorsmove are positioned well, back of the plane of the doors and in thisexample each is shown as being slightly to the side of the center of itsdoor. In the present instance such pivots are made up of a pipe 18,mounted in the top and bottom bearings 20 and 22, in which the pipe 18pivots. A bar 24 connects the upper part of the central portion of thedoor with the pivot 18, and a similar lower bar 26 connects the lowerpart of the door with the pivot. An additional bar 28 is supplied whichis substantiallya continuation of the bar 24. These bars may be formedof ordinary pieces of plpeandthe entire device, except the pivots 20 and22, can be assembled from usual pipe fittmgs. 'The coat hangers, as 30,may be hung from the bars 24 and 28, which may be considered as formingjointly an upper door support bar. 1

With this construction, the doors may be made no wider than the coathangers and the parts may be so proportioned that the ends of the coathangers will extend across in back of the front portions 14'of theenclosure so that all of the space in the enclosure willbe usedefficiently. The doors are preferably supplied with knobs as indicatedat 32 by which they can be opened.

YVhen the doors are shut, a pull on a knob will start the door 16pivoting around the plpe 18. This means that, as the front edge of thedoor comes forward, the outer edge will move back into the wardrobe. Atthe same time, the bar 28 will-swing with the door and the clothes willbe swung around into such position that they are readily accessible fromthe front of the. wardrobe and actually extend out of the wardrobe. Thedevice operates very easily, for the weight of the clothes is notcarried by the door but is carried on the metal pivot and as the bars 24and 28 are rigidly connected together, the

weight of the clothes on thebar 28 is balanced bythe weight of the doorto keep the thrust more or less directly on the bottom bearing. w

I It is to be noted that in the structure shown in these figures, whenthe door is closed, each pivot 18 is in back of the central part of itsdoor but, more specifically, is perpendicularly back of a vertical lineon the door which is nearer the edge which swings inwardly (that is theedge which contacts with member 14) than it is to the edge which swingsoutwardly. It is further to be noted that the distance which the centerof pivot 18 is back of the front face of its door is more than halfthedistance from the said vertical line on the door'opposite thepivot,to the inwardly swinging edge, but does not exceed this. totaldistance. This is essential to insure each side of Fig. 1, theproportion of the door.

which is back in the cupboard when the door is open is equal to the sumof the distance from the front of the door to the; center of.- thepivot, plus the distance from the said vertical line perpendicular tothe pivot to the inwardly swinging edge. If this sum is more than halfthe width of the door,'then when the door is open in a perpendicularposition, more than half of the door will be enclosed in the cupboard.Within these rules, the position of the pivot may be varied,

but these rules must be followed if one is to" get a structure as shown,in which the doors when open project out only a small part of theirwidth and are over close to the sides of the enclosure."

In the modification shown in Fig. 3 the front panel 14' is made narrowerthan'the corresponding panel 14 of Fig. 1 and the outer .edge of thedoor 16 is much closer to the end 12' of the enclosure. In order thatthe door 16 may clear the side of the enclosure, anadditional pivot isprovided between'the bar24 and the door. This pivot comprises a member34 attached to the door and connected by a pivot pin 35 to a member 36attachedto the bar 24". Member 34 is provided with a pin 38 whichcooperates with stops 40 on the member 36 to limit the relative amountof'movernent of the two members'34 and 36. r

In Fig. 3 the door 16 is shown as open and is shown in closed positionand in two intermediate positions in broken lines. If the door is closedand one pulls on a knob 32' the door will first swing into position Aflexing about pin 35; A further pull on the knob 32 willcause the mainpivot 18' to rotate, and the-door and upper support bar will move intoposition'B where the outer edge of the door just clears the side 12 ofthe enclosure. On further pivoting about the main pivot 18' the edge ofthe door which is swung back into the "cabinet will strike the stop 42(arranged on either the top or bottom of the cabinet) and will swinginto position C or the open position shown in a full lines. While thisform is slightly more expensive to produce than that shown in Figs. 1and 2,-it may be useful where the space available is of a shape thatdoes not readily lend itself to'the other form of structure.

It is to be understood that the examples are given only by way ofillustration and may be'modified in many particulars without departingfrom the spirit of my invention.

Iclaim: a 1. In an'enclosure adapted for use as a wardrobe or thej like,asubstantially fiat door, a verticalpivot bar inside the plane of thedoor held against substantial lateral movement, support arms connectingthe door I 3. In anenclosure adapted for use as a V wardrobe. or thelike, a door therefor, arms extending back from the central portion ofthe door adapted to support the door, means for'supporting such arms topivot about a line a substantial distance inside the plane of the door,and an extension for the upper of said arms which moves with such, upperarm and is adapted to serve as a support for clothes orthe like. I

4. enclosure of the type described, comprising a fixed front portion atone side of the doorway, a substantially fiat door having an inwardlyswinging edge adapted to con tact with said front portion when the dooris closed and an outwardly swinging edge, a pivot for said doorperpendicularly back of a vertical line on the door when closed, nearersaid'inwardly swinging edge than said outwardly swinging edge, thecenter of said pivot being back of the front face of the door adistancemore than half as great but not greater than the distance from saidvertical line on thedoor to'the inwardly swinging edge, and the sum ofsaid distance from the center of the pivot to the front face plus thedistance from said vertical line on the door t-othe inwardly swingingedge being greater than half the width of the door,

means fixed immovably on the door for mounting the the door on saidpivot so that when the door is opened to a position perpendicular toitsclosed position, it will be adjacent said fixed front portion ofthe.enclosure withmore than half of its width in the enclosure, andsupport means, positioned behind'said door and fixed relative to thedoor so that the same will swing around said pivot'when the door isopened. I

EDWARD B. GREEN, JR.

